Hong Kong on alert for melamine

Hong Kong is escalating its testing of Chinese food
products, following the discovery of melamine contamination in eggs.

Excessive levels of melamine were found in one brand
of mainland eggs on Saturday which suggests that the contamination may have come
from animal feeds. Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety will begin testing Chinese
pork, farmed fish and offal products, Health secretary York Chow
said.

"Since some animal feed used on the mainland might have been
polluted by melamine, our tests will target more on meat imported from the
mainland," Chow said. "As we have found melamine in eggs, we shall also
test chicken meat and we shall also look at offal, for example, chicken kidneys
and pig kidneys," he added.

From the tests conducted so far, feed used
by Hong Kong-based farmers appears to be free of contamination and local farmers
have said they do not use imported feed.

The tests follow last months
scandal that milk and other food products made in China were tainted with the
industrial chemical melamine, and resulted in the deaths of four
babies.

Chinese food products have been banned around the world, with
tests continuing in order to pinpoint problems in China's food safety regimen.